I posted a quick blurb about the video at ESReality which is a pretty cool gaming community site. Here's the post itself, where you can find some additional mirrors if Fileplanet happens to be full or whatnot.
Oh yeah, you can rank the movie to so why don't you take your time and vote (of course you'd have to register but I recommend you do that anyway since it's a good site).

Today is certainly a great day! First the new SDA Forum and now we can present to you the first ever SDA Promotion Video! It's a 101mb video that runs for 5:36 minutes and shows various speedrunning tricks! It's accompanied by some kick ass metal music (none of that techno crap for me thanks!) and made with Jozsef's JoeQuake engine. It's definitely worth the download even though it may be a bit big for people still stuck on crappy connections.

The long awaited tRR video will also be released soon, we just need to spread the word with the SDA Promotion Video first, but I can promise you that the tRR video kicks major beee-hind!

You know the old saying out with the old, in with the new, right? In this case it couldn't be more true, 'cause today ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to announce a brand spanking new Forum on SDA! It's HEAPS better than the old, slow and ugly looking Message Board, so that one will end up collecting dust I reckon ;-) Now we just need for YOU people to post some sillyness on the Forum, pronto! A huge applause goes out to the lovely Jube from PQ.com who gave a BIG hand (no guys, not _that_ kind of hand!) with the Forum, thanks gale (inside joke, don't ask)! ;-)

Just a quick little note that I found some old demos for the Quake done Chopped project that were thought to be lost (in fact I've had them on my HD for ages, I just wasn't aware that I had :-). Go have a looksie...

We're going to get straight on with the demos without too much arseing about this time. I have worn my brain out in the last few days putting the finishing touches to a looong overdue project and I can barely even remember my name, let alone think of any comments to make in this update. Still, we'll see how in goes...

It didn't take Connor Fitzgerald long to break OpenGL's TO of dm5sp. Following the last update it took mere hours before he sent in a 0:21 Nightmare Run, one fiend-jumping second faster. And it was only a couple of days later that he tightened this up to 0:20. Recommended

Various Coagula shenanigans also assaulted our inbox this week...

• tyrcoag took a pounding from Basil de Vries, who improved Ivan's Easy Run by thirty-four seconds to 0:49 with several stylish ogre-gren jumps and some brand new shortcuts. Shame he missed one RJ. :-/
• Robert and Rickard Axelsson more than cut that time in half with their 2-player Easy Run in 0:24 with their now famous "get weapon, boost, get weapon, boost, get weapon, boost, boost, boost" combo.
• If you're going to take a record you might as well do it in style. Joe's recent chain3 Easy Run caused a few gasps of amazement, so Denis Nazarov decided to improve it. Not just by a second, but by a whole four seconds to 0:20. A new fiend-boost gives him the speed he needs for the big time saving... Recommended
• Weixing Ye demonstarted to Basil the old maxim "if you've got a quad - use it" by improving his Easy 100% of chain3 by thirteen seconds to 1:00.
• And because I like the look of discoag2 I thought it was time someone did the Nightmare 100%. Eventually I had a lucky run and exited in 2:16.

More deathmatch level madness. This update has already had two Recommended demos and I like to try and keep the numbers down if possible. I think three should be the limit for this week but both of the following demos are totally worthy. So, as part of our never before mentioned (and never to be mentioned again) SDA Interactive initiative we're going to let you decided which demo deserves the honour. Simply watch them both and then say to yourself "I preferred xxxxxx's demo." It's that simple. ;-)

• Martin Selinus improved Connors Easy 100% of dm2sp by one second to 0:41 using a new route.
• And Anders Nordensten recaptured his Nightmare Run of dm3sp from Robert using the long bunny to the rocket launcher and then boosting like a madman. 0:31, five seconds faster.

Our last demo is a little beer-inhibited coop action from Thomas Stubgaard and Aleksander Osipov. Alex and the lovely Tanja recently visited the Stubster and they found the time to improve Tommi and Kari's old Easy 100% of Azure Agony. 1:17. ONE second faster. :-)

A few other items before I go. First a reminder about Contest #5. You have just over a week, people, that's all I'm going to say...

Next we'd like YOUR help to stop us looking like unloved rejects. I know we are unloved rejects but that doesn't mean everyone has to know about it. So get along to PQ's Poll Of The Week this week and vote as your conscience dictates on question #3.

And finally tonight, as regulars on the Message Board will know, Stubby has opened up two QdQ projects to the world at large: one is to try and finish off Quake done Chopped and the other is a brand new Hipnotic Easy 100% project. Hopefully these, particularly the second one, will appeal to some of you. But don't let them distract you from the important things in life such as liberty, happiness and the RotW Contests! :-)

All demos download is available here (Germany).

Fasten yourself in, dear friend, as this could be a bumpy ride. Or at least a fairly long one. You see, over the last couple of months I've got out of the habit of writing these long updates and now that one's come along I find that my hands are shaking in anticipation, even after rigorously practising the traditional SDA hand steadying exercises.

I'd like to begin by kicking off Contest #5 in our 2003 Speedrunning Championship. It's a little different from the last few contests but the theme will be familiar to long time SDA devotees. Because several people expressed an interest it's a collectathon on an id map. So go and have fun in The Wizard's Pants.

Now for a swathe of demos for your unedifyable viewing pleasure, presented here in no particular order...

Starting off with Me filling the Nightmare 100% gap on jesus in the very unremarkable time of 2:40.

Still on the same map, Basil de Vries managed to force his way through to complete the life-sapping Nightmare Run in 0:37.

Next we'll take a look at what Ivan Vladev has been up to on tyrcoag. As I believe I mentioned somewhere once before, this map is a real git for falling into the void, so some careful footwork is needed. However, I'm not entirely convinced that playing with trigger-info on is absolutely necessary. :-) 1:23. Now who's up for the Nightmare Run?

The new DMxSP maps have come in for a good kicking this week from three worthy runners, presented here in order of testicular capacity...

• First up we have Connor "XL" Fitzgerald dishing out the harm on dm2sp...
  • He did a really rather impressive Easy 100% in 0:42 using a nifty route and some good fast killin'.
  • He also thought Anders's Nightmare Run just wasn't aggressive enough so he upped the pain quotient and did a 0:29 two seconds faster.
  • Then he tidied the route up a little and managed to get another second off the time giving 0:28.
  • But the problem with getting it any faster is that you need to get to the floaty platform really fast otherwise you have to wait a while for it to move into position. How can you get there faster? With an excellent new Gren Jump/DK slide combo, that's how. 0:26. Two seconds faster still.
• There's a lot of monsters to obstruct you on the Nightmare Run of dm3sp. Robert "XXL" Axelsson used a clever mid-air lightning boost, amongst other tweaks, to improve Anders's time by three seconds to 0:36.
• Weixing "XXXL" Ye has become the first person to take TO of a new map with three ball-breaking demos on dm5sp...
  • Better running at the start and what can only be described as unbelievable luck with the monsters in the last two rooms allowed him to improve Lodis's Nightmare Run by four fat seconds to 0:22. Connor also sent in a 0:22 but his arrived a couple of days later. It does show a much quicker way to reach the switch but he was slightly slower throughout the rest of the run. His demo is also included in the big.dz (below) so that anyone that wishes to topple OpenGl can see how it's done.
  • He also filled the vacant Easy 100% slot with a slick 0:42. Is there a better route??
  • He completed the ownage with a Nightmare 100% in 1:05. I'm glad I didn't send in my tablefiller now because it would have looked embarrassing next to this masterpiece of mayhem. He even stood toe-to-toe with a shambler in an arse-kicking contest when there was absolutely no need. I like.

One more demo, back where we started. Basil de Vries has stomped all over my jesus NH tablefiller (above) getting a much more respectable time of 2:04.

Now, we don't normally report on new custom Quake engines, but this one deserves our support for several reasons. Firstly, because it's been written (see the .txt that comes with it for a better definition of "written") by Jozsef Szalontai; secondly, because it has some cool demo playback features such as demo autocomplete, play demos from within a .dz, and lots more; thirdly, because it's still a beta version and if anyone can find fault and break something it's you fuckers. :-) It's called JoeQuake and you can read all about it here.

Finally, I'm going to post an e-mail we've received from Paul "distrans" Brosche, the mapper who made discoag2. I don't normally reproduce e-mails here (apart from the occasional obviously fake one) but this time I thought it raised some interesting points. I won't say any more, here it is...

This is a general missive to all at SDA,
As a mapper who, earlier this year, struggled through the process of piecing together then tearing apart three attempts at a Coagula style level, I was a bit apprehensive about offering a completed level up to a bunch of speed freaks. After all, if I was going to spend months producing a quality product, I didn't want it blown off in a few seconds. However, after ELEK encouraged all potential coagula mappers to keep speed running in mind, I took the unconventional step of emptying Usher Recompiled on "easy".
Last night I got my first opportunity to view the runs produced on my level. The aerial control in 033, 032 and 031 at the point following silver key acquisition is something I'd never even considered. However, what really made me stand up and cheer was the combination of slope jumps and grenade jumps involved in Jozsef's 027 run. Stand up and cheer?!! Didn't I say earlier that I didn't want the level blown off in a few seconds. Yes, but what I hadn't understood at that point was that speed runners don't "play" levels, they "know" levels (in some ways, more intimately than any straight SP player ever wants to). So Jozsef blew the level off in 27 seconds... to do so meant that Jozsef had to become involved with the level. This makes me a very happy mapper.
Hats off and thankyou, you've put the icing on my experience with the Coagula 2 competition.

It's nice to see courtesy, praise and understanding from someone who is not involved in speedrunning but who makes it possible. And it got me thinking: when was the last time I mailed a mapper to tell him what I thought of his work...

That's about all we have time for, folks. We hope you'll be joining us again soon for more of the usual bollocks.

I should be on Reality TV. Why? So I could switch it off.

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

First of all, let me welcome Michael 'mwh' Hudson to TeamSDA. It's going to be loads of fun having him aboard the ship, and I'm sure the readers (that's you people!) will benefit from this as well.

When we added all those Second Coagula Map Mapping Contest Maps (!) we skipped one of them due to problems running it in WinQuake, but all that has been fixed now, and even though the map may not be the best for speedrunning, we've decided to add it to SDA anyways just to have the entire Coagula pack in the archives. The map is called pushcoag (The Vertical Mile) and was made by Pushplay. Please call your demos push_xxx.

On a related note, check out this thread from Func_Msgboard...

Just two demos this time, one of them on one of the new maps, and one of them on a recently new map :-)

• Basil de Vries plowed his way through jesus on Easy skill, killing all monsters and getting all secrets in 1:13.
• Dan Stukanev improved his Nightmare Run of ebony1 by 2 seconds to get 0:49.

That's all for today... I think...

Well, the fools who run this site seem to have let ME get access to the holy SDA webpages... Rest assured, I do have an evil plan for taking over the world -- and SDA is an important part of that plan -- but to lull you all into a false sense of security I'll start by uploading an ID demo:

• Timo Nieminen has been reading the SDA web board and improved Carl's EH of e4m6 by two seconds to 1:51. Nothing hugely revolutionary, just a smoother run.

Right, that's it for today. Morfy's better at words than me, so hopefully abusing my fast uni connection will give him more time to write the damn updates and you won't hear so much from me... but we'll see.

...another batch of demos on the new maps:

• Let's begin with an improvement on the jesus map. Thomas Bergendorff used a tricky double grenade-jump to improve Anders' Easy Run by 2 seconds to get 0:23.
• Jozsef Szalontai did the first demo on chain3. Using an alternative route and some nice rocket jumping he did the Easy Run in 0:24.
• Staying with Jozsef for a bit, we have another improvement to the Easy Run on discoag2. He used a different route than Weixing, and added a very clever slope jump from a lamp post of whatever the hell it is, and improved the record by 4 seconds to get 0:27.
• Going back to Weixing, we have the first 100% demo of the day. Weixing basically took his Easy Run route of discoag2 and applied it to the Easy 100% (the only difference is a secret), which he did in 0:33.
• And now for three demos courtesy of SDA's very own donkey lovah, Mr. Skidmore. First he did the Nightmare 100% of nesp10, but being the bitch that he is, he didn't want me to post the first attempt he did, but like always when someone says that, it will only make us post it anyway, and Richard shouldn't be treated any different now should he? ;-) So here it is, a crap demo in 4:44, which he later improved to 4:23. Richard seems a tad annoyed at the bounce pads...
• The last demo he did was the Easy 100% of tyrcoag, which is the first demo we've received on this map. Using a few shortcuts here and there he did this map in 3:24.
• And last but not least we have a coop demo from the Axelsson Brothers (Robert and Rickard). They had a go at dm3sp flying through it in 0:27. Nice boosts fellas!

Ok, I might as well mention this now (this is the good news I talked about yesterday). We're bringing a new guy aboard SDA to help us out with the demo uploads/updates etc. The major reasons for this is that I'll be moving to the big city (Copenhagen) soon, so I most likely won't be as much online as I am now, but more on that subject later. And the other reason is that Morfans is on a crap connection and he'd be the only one doing demo updates once I move, so it'd be nice to have another guy around to help out once in a while. Oh yeah, I bet you're all curious as to who it is ;-) I won't tell you though, all I can say is that he usually hangs out in our IRC channel... he'll be making an appearance soon, so stay tuned!

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

I thought I'd relieve Morfans from doing all the demo updates, so here goes...

• Let's kick it off with Anders Nordensten who seems to be on a rampage these days! Not long after Morfans had posted the new maps update, Anders improved both the Easy and Nightmare runs of nesp10, both by 1 second, but that couldn't stop him from sending in another 1 second improvement to both records just a few minutes later. 0:09 (easy) and 0:09 (nightmare). Is 0:08 optimum?!
• He spent some time on dm3sp, filling out the empty hole for the Nighmare Run in a time of 0:39. Tricky run.
• He filled another hole for one of the new maps, this time discoag2 stood for fall. No monsters on easy skill makes this map quite easy to survive, but lots of well placed bunnies are required to get a good time. He ran the map in 0:32, but Weixing Ye wasn't going to let Anders run with all the glory, so he put on his favorite pair of running boots and blasted through the map in 0:31. Really nice! But does anyone dare to do it on Nightmare skill?
• Michael Hudson had a go at the jesus map. Monster avoidance and leet grenade jumping is the key to tackle this map. Michael did it in 0:29, but then again Anders comes along and proves his worth. 4 seconds faster in 0:25. A little sluggish at the end, but otherwise a damn fine run.
• And the final demo of the day comes courtesy of Connor Fitzgerald, with a 1 second improvement to his record on dmsp2. He managed to squeeze the time down to 0:23. Nice!

We've received one more demo, but you won't be seeing that one just yet. We have some good (hopefully) news to announce in the coming days...

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

Attention young ladies! This is not a demo update! I repeat, this is not a demo update!

"Why not?" you may well ask. Well, last night the results of the Second Coagula Map Mapping Contest were posted over at Underworldfan's Site and since then Mr Stubgaard and myself have spent a couple of hours ripping the maps out of the .pak and repackaging them as single maps for your speedrunning enjoyment. And here they are...

• chain3 - Indigo by Chainer. Please call your demos ch3_xxx.
• tyrcoag - Outside In by Tyrann. Please call your demos tyrc_xxx.
• nesp10 - Embers Of Cruelty by Necros. PLease call your demos ne10_xxx.
• jesus - Jesus Wants You by A Mapper. Please call your demos jes_xxx.
• discoa2 - Usher Recompiled by Distrans. PLease call your demos dis2_xxx.

Pushplay's map has not been added since it crashes Quake when you run it, but if that gets sorted it'll be added at a later date. We haven't really tested all the maps for runnability or found all the secrets but they looked so damn cool we just had to add them immediately. :-)

Of course, you can download all the maps in the proper .pak and extract them yourself if you want. We just thought this would make things easier for running them with QdQstats.

Finally, I lied about there being no demos in this update. I quickly just knocked out the Easy and Nightmare runs of nesp10 in 0:11.

Enjoy!

Righty-ho. Let's get this update posted. I've been working on it for four days now and it's not fair to delay any longer. When I say "working on it for four days" it makes it sound like it's going to be an epic masterpiece. It's not. It's been a fortnight of hay and sheep for me and whenever I sit down to do the update I just draw a complete blank, stare at the screen for an hour or so, then just wander off.

But now the hay's all in, the sheep are all sorted, and I'm not leaving this desk until I've posted the first batch of new map demos. So hitch your wagon to a chicken and feel inspired...

I didn't honestly expect to see any demos on dm1sp, but Timo Nieminen has improved his excellent Nightmare Run by one more second to 0:12. I wasn't expecting to have to type MUST DOWNLOAD either, but I just have.

Some people have had a little trouble working out how to open the start on dm2sp. Hopefully these demos will show just how easy it can be..

• Thomas Bergendorff started things off with the Easy Run in 0:29 using the quad to clear the way.
• But Connor Fitzgerald skipped the quad and grenade-boosted himself to a 0:24. RECOMMENDED
• Anders Nordensten then stepped up and had a try at the monster infested Nightmare Run, managing to exit in 0:31.

On to dm3sp...

• I thought the fastest route here would be to grab the rocket launcher and blast your way to the exit, but Anders showed that when you have bunny-skillz you don't need rockets. He did the Easy Run in 0:30. Nice work.
• And just to get the 100%s started, I did the Nightmare 100%, flawed though I might be, in 3:47.

There were a couple of good little battles on dm5sp...

• First the Easy Run...
  • Anders was first with a 0:23.
  • Using his "home turf" advantage Basil de Vries improved this to 0:22.
  • But some great running from Weixing Ye secured him the record with 0:21. RECOMMENDED
• Then the Nightmare Run...
  • Basil used a cool fiend-plus-slope boost (on his second attempt) to get 0:27.
  • But Lodis just ran up the stairs instead and fought his way to the gold key quicker to get 0:26.

To round things off we'll go back to Basil and the 100% demos on trinity.

• He came up with yet another new route which saved him thirteen seconds over Anders's Easy 100% time to take the record down to 2:01.
• And he used to same route to chop ten seconds off of OpenGl's Nightmare 100%, getting 2:04. A little messy but a sweet piece of map planning.

That's today's round up done. Next update in a couple of days. No. Don't laugh. I mean it. Seriously. :-)

We might even have the next contest ready to post. What do you think, Nolan? :-P

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

While we sit around here in the fortress of solitude that is SDA, desperately trying to work out what the next RotW is going to be, I thought it was way past time we added some more maps.

Now, the plan was to add the other deathmatch maps and the two that have already been used and make it a whole new custom episode! Unfortunately, Basil hasn't finished dm6sp yet and is off on his holidays so it's just going to be the other five for now, and any marathon freaks out there will just have to wait. :-/

To recap the current records from the recent contests on dm1sp and dm4sp...

• dm1sp Easy Run : 0:08 by Peter Horvath.
• dm1sp Easy 100% : 0:36 by Martin Selinus.
• dm1sp Nightmare Run : 0:13 by Timo Nieminen.
• dm1sp Nightmare 100% : 0:47 by Weixing Ye.
• dm4sp Easy Run : 0:07 by Peter Horvath.
• dm4sp Easy 100% : 0:11 by Jozsef Szalontai.
• dm4sp Nightmare Run : 0:09 by Peter Horvath.
• dm4sp Nightmare 100% : 0:17 by Weixing Ye.

Now, it'd be obvious to call the demos dm1_xxx - dm5_xxx wouldn't it? Ah, but damaul3 is already using dm3_xxx. Therefore please call your demos dm1x_xxx - dm5x_xxx. For example, Peter's dm4 Easy Run is called dm4x_007.

Finally, you can get the maps here...

• dm1sp
• dm2sp
• dm3sp
• dm4sp
• dm5sp
• All five maps
• Just 2,3 and 5

Now go kill some monster! And if you see Basil on ICQ remember to thank him for making the levels and also nag him to finish dm6sp. :-)

Sorry Martin we (well actually it was all my fault but it feels better to share the blame with someone) forgot to include your demos in the dzīs. I've uploaded new versions so hopefully people will get your demos too from now on.

Man did we get some great demos! Congratulation to Peter, Joe, Peter (again) and eixing for their wins. What exactly did they win? CONTEST 4 of course. Go check the results and download the excellent demos.
I want to thank everybody for participating (we had a very good turnout this time) and Basil for making the map.

Oh yeah, you might want to check the Championship ladder.

You know the old saying : Another week goes by, another eight demos roll in. Of course, that doesn't include the huge pile of demos we've had for the RotW Contest #4. But if you're one of those people that haven't yet sent in your demos (and there's still quite a few regular names that haven't) please don't forget that the deadline is SUNDAY MIDNIGHT CET. Avoid looking a fool - send your demos TODAY! (Errrr. Or TOMORROW!)

One man is really on a roll at the moment as regards Id Nightmare 100%s. No prizes for guessing who it is, in fact there's a square kick in the saq for anyone that can't guess who it is. I am, of course, refering to Thomas Stubgaard. Who, because he owns just about all the records anyway, has improved his own Hell's Atrium record. Those of you with a good memory will remember his previous demo as "the one where he made a fool of himself by repeatedly failing to do the slope jump", but there's no such problem this time and so he exited in the spawn-poppingly fast time of 2:17, 13 seconds faster. Super Cool

The madness that is the Nightmare 100% of rings2 has continued throughout the week. I doubt, however, if we'll see any further improvements after this lot...

• Basil de Vries started things off with a 0:10, five seconds faster than Ivan.
• But Weixing Ye heard about it and decided that anything Basil could do, he could do better and scored a 0:09...
• ... and quickly followed it up with probably-optimum-but-I-guess-a-0:07-could-be-done-in-theory 0:08. Spicey
• Mr Ye has also ended the speculation as to whether a 0:04 was possible for the Nightmare Run in the only way possible: he did a 0:04. Shamb-tastically Optimum

OpenGL also took control of both 100%s on ebony1, the "annoying sinky platforms" map.

• He improved my terminally defective Nightmare 100% by twenty-one seconds to 1:16.
• And Basil's Easy 100% by four seconds to 1:04.

And to finish things off we have a display of precision bunnying, or "powerhopping" as some might call it, by Jozsef Szalontai. A simple map, a simple route, one second faster than Kimmo. The Easy Run of dazsp2c in 0:09. Bunn-tasically Optimum.

That's all for today, keep 'em coming, people.

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

Sorry about the title, that was Stubby's idea. So many things to get through, so let's begin with a look through this weeks small but stunning crop of demos.

If I just mention the name "Jozsef Szalontai" then most people think they're in for a bit of a demo treat. And today is no exception. With a little twist, a little boost and a perfect finish he improved Martin's Nightmare Run of Gloom Keep by two seconds to 0:17. Undoubtedly a MUST DOWNLOAD.

Next, for those that prefer their MUST DOWNLOADs to be longer and bloodier, we have Thomas Stubgaard improving another tricky "shotgun only" demo, the Nightmare 100% of Azure Agony. Spawns, vores and shamblers abound on this level, and you have nothing to fight them with but your trusty boomstick and a hefty pile of Quads. It's staying alive that's the trick... Of course, being a total showoff Stubby improved it twice, first by one second to 3:37 and then by five more seconds to 3:32. Mxxx Dxxxxxxx

We'll head back to Joe again now for our final Id improvement of this update. It's a seven second improvement to Ilkka's Easy 100% Marathon of The Dimension of the Doomed. It's also, and I use this term very carefully, not particularly good. What I mean is that whereas it's far superior to anything I could ever produce, for a demo of Joe beating Ilkka using all the new routes and tricks from the last couple of years it's just not as impressive as expected. The fact that it's 15 months old and he's only just decided to send it in probably explains a lot. :-) 7:42.

Following on from Fragbait's slightly cautious rings2 Nightmare 100% last time, a couple of you have decided to spend a few minutes bringing the time down to a more reasonably level and giving us the biggest ever percentage improvement in SDAs history! Bigger even than Daniels's improvement of Amrik's czg07c or Marlo's improvement of Tim's nhall. So, from the original 1:17 we have Tim Doherty making a fifty-nine second improvement to 0:18 and Ivan Vladev making a sixty-two second improvement to 0:15. So let me see now, that's 77 seconds down to 15, that makes it a .... ummm .... well a pretty big percentage improvement!

Next, a nice coop from two of the oldest (in archive terms) warhorses in SDA history. Evan Wagner has once again risen from the dead to team up with Nolan Pflug to fill the Nightmare 100% slot on bbelief3 in the exit camping time of 1:35. (2:17)

I have a couple of things to add before I go. Naturally I'm going to throw in a quick reminder that there is just a week-and-a-bit to go in the latest contest so don't forget to send your entries in. ALL OF YOU!!! :-)

And also a big thanks to everyone that has sent in maps and suggestion for contests. There's been some pretty cool stuff on off and we will get round to sending you a proper reply soon. In the mean time, keep them coming!

On a similar note, I've had a pretty thorough breakdown/design for a contest map but the author has no mapping experience and would like to team up with a mapper to help turn the concept into a contest. :-) It doesn't look, to my untrained eye, to be a particularly difficult map to make so if someone out there can spare a few hours please mail me and I'll put you both in touch.

And finally a slightly serious and controversial issue. That of scripts. A few days ago someone asked me about whether or not it's "legal" to use a script to help with aiming the nailgun during the intermission. While the use of scripts is frowned upon by most speedrunning purists, it appears that one or two have been used over the years to accomplish small but tricky tasks.

So let's keep things simple: Please do not use scripts. SDA stands for SPEED Demos Archive not SCRIPT Demos Archive.

If you DO feel you need to use a script (or macro or whatever you want to call it), for example for aiming during intermission kills or to face a certain way at the start of a demo, then please credit the fact that you used a script and include the script itself in your .txt file. That way everyone can clearly see what you've done.

As far as I'm concerned this subject is closed. This website and the speedrunning community is about having fun and playing fair, please respect that.

If you don't understand what I'm talking about then don't worry, it doesn't apply to you. :-)

Thank-you for listening.

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

Okay, so when I said "Demo update to follow very soon" I was maybe being a little hopeful. I'd like to say sorry to those of you that I promised that I'd do an update last weekend, I'm afraid real life got the better of me this week. Hell, we're even getting moans in the sBox over at Quake Terminus. (Calm down, Chris, we'll get to your demo in a minute...) :-)

Let's start off with a real corker of a demo. It's a MUST DOWNLOAD if you like long, insane Nightmare 100% demos on Id maps using only the shotgun. And let's be honest, who doesn't! So settle back and enjoy Thomas Stubgaard improving his own record (for the fifth time) on the Chambers of Torment by two seconds to 4:07. I just love the "lava sharks" in these demos. :-)

Next up, three demos from Weixing Ye.

• He used a new route to take four seconds off of Anders's Nightmare 100% of trinity, getting 2:14. He was using a borrowed, slow PC to record this, hence no bunnies at all. It's strange to watch players running through long, open areas without swishing from side to side and jumping like a mexican catfish on angel-dust.
• He then teamed up with Xiaokui Xiao to reform The SCUT Combo and make two OPTIMUM rings2 demos...
  • Having no coop starts made the Easy Run very difficult: Start, jump, pause, connect, aim, unpause, boost, bounce, open, exit in 5.04, 5.1, 5.08, etc. Eventually they manged to get the magic 0:04.
  • The Nightmare Run was a little easier: Start, jump, pause, connect, aim, unpause, boost, double shambler boost, open, exit in 0:04.

A Hipnotic level improvement is a rare thing these days, so it's nice to see that Carl Tholin can still kick Scourgey arse when he has too. This time he improved Justin's Easy 100% of hip3m1 by six seconds to 1:34. As usual, he makes it look so damn easy. RECOMMENDED

Our next demo is a stunning display from Chris Hamilton, filling the empty Nightmare 100% slot on rings2. The two shamblers in the main arena at the start of this map mean that you'd die if you tried the Easy 100% route, but even so I think there's room for a little improvement to this 1:17, eleven times slower. :-)

And now we have Basil de Vries, who this time has really taken the time for the Nightmare 100% of rit2 below the 2 minute mark. Nine seconds below, in fact. 1:51

Since we're on the subject of Big Bas I think I should mention once again about the next Contest in the 2003 Speedrunning Championship. It's another Basil conversion of an Id DM map, and in my opinion a great, fun running map, although one or two people have told me they find some of the monsters "annoying" on Nightmare skill. But this raises an important point: without feedback we'll just carry on as we are. If there's something you don't like, please let us know. If there's something you really do like, let us know. If you have a suggestion for a contest, let us know. Basically, let us know. :-)

Well, QExpo is over and they didn't actually release any runnable maps, which made our plan of a big map splurge a bit of a non-starter. :-/ There were plenty of very cool maps and mods released, but none of then were really fun to speedrun. My personal favourite was the huge, and I mean HUGE, nesp09 from Necros. The main map is so huge you need a modified engine to run it, and that coupled with the facts that it'd need a custom progs.dat writing and it'd take half a day to do a run on it means we won't be adding it to the archive. (Probably). But just for a bit of fun I decided to do a Nightmare 100% of the "secret" map, ne_os1. It's not included in the all demos download because it's quite large and clocks in at 12:47. That may sound like a long time but there are 621(!!) monsters to kill.

That's it for another update. Don't forget to polish you marrow.

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

Do you know what? I think it's time for the NEXT CONTEST.

Demo update to follow very soon.

Hey, my shortest update ever! The same length as a 15 demo Radix update. :-P

Just letting you guys know that there's a speedrunning event happening over at QExpo! You have until tomorrow (Wednesday) 12am GMT to get your entries in, but do NOT send them to us! :-) Find out more about the map, rules and where to send your demos over at Qexpo.

Sorry for the delay, everyone, but the Championship Ladder has now been updated with the results from Contest #3, and it's meant some big changes at the top...

Robert Axelsson has taken a one point lead over Anders Nordensten with Martin Selinus coming up quickly in third place. But with five contests to go it's still anyone's game, especially with the likes of Timo, OpenGL, Ken, Denn and Stubby (if he ever gets his arse in gear and actually sends any demos in :-P) biting at their heels. And now that Joe has thrown his hat into the ring is anyone safe?

Let's be honest, with the chance to win the SDA trophy at stake (something you'll be able to put on your desk or hang on your wall (depends on what it ends up being) with pride and in years to come show your grandchildren) you'd be mad not to take part!

That's right, Folks. We've closed the door on Teh Plaec Of Two Deahts and nailed up the results.

So please join me in congratulating Timo Nieminen (Nightmare Run), Martin Selinus (Easy 100%), Weixing Ye (Nightmare 100%) and .... wait for it ... Peter Horvath (Easy Run) on their well deserved wins.

Thanks to everyone who took part and made this contest another big success. It's great to see new people getting involved, too, so a big SDA welcome to Adam and Megazoid. I'd also like to thank the ever gorgeous Jube for pointing out my slight mistake with the dates to everyone in the world. :-)

So there you go. The next contest will be along very soon, but in the mean time be sure to keep your eye on QExpo as we hope to add a whole splurge of maps, if any of the new ones are runnable, of course.

Finally, the Championship Ladder is not updated yet as I just don't have time right now and I didn't want to delay posting the results. It will hopefully be done before the end of the day.

Sometimes I just ask myself is it all worth it? All the effort. All the stress. All the brain-grinding tedium. And guess what? It is! It was a relief to me, I don't mind telling you. So there you are. It's officially all worth it. Thank fuck for that.

One of my all-time favourite Dutchmen, Basil de Vries, seems to have taken umbrage at my suggestion that his last set of rit2 demos were "untidy"...

• He tidied up my Easy Run by eighteen seconds to get 2:00.
• And just as I was getting ready to recapture the record he further improved it to 1:49. Looking pretty good.
• And in a display of typical Basil, he improved my Nightmare 100% by thirteen seconds to 2:07, he decided not to improve it further as he was happy to get below 2 minutes. (???!!!?!??!?)

One of my all-time favourite Russians, Dan Stukanev, has kept working on his ebony1 Nightmare Run and it's paid off with a two second improvement to 0:51. Some nice play and a lovely little spin into the exit. :-)

One of my all-time favourite necrophiliacs, Carl Tholin, has achieved a pretty impressive record with the next two demos...

• He improved Ilkka's old rd1m3 Easy Run by one second to get 0:38. Pretty bloody impressive to improve a no-bunny "optimum" run and in doing so take TO of the level.
• Then came an attack on DanielL's Nightmare 100% of rd1m2 which fell by three seconds to 2:24. Once again giving him TO of the level.
• And that means that Carl now has Total Ownage of ALL the original Runners Delight levels. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a small golf-clap for Carl. Well done, old boy.

Because Carl has finally completed this Herculean task, it's only fair, I suppose, that I feed his ego and put up a link to this recent picture of Marvin, Pretty-Balls, Rolle and Carl. Now, this might look to you like a slightly out of focus picture of the Village People without their costumes on, but it isn't. Apparently Swedish people always look a little fuzzy around the edges at this time of year.

However, all four of the above wankers gentlemen have guaranteed that they'll have their entries to the latest RotW in on time. So take a leaf out of their book and don't forget, the deadline is Midnight CET, Sunday 6th June. And if you don't receive an e-mail back saying "we have your demo", we don't have your demo!

In case you weren't already aware, the latest and greatest Quake Expo is due to start this Saturday. It's bound to be a feast of maps, mods and general dicking around, so be sure to check up on what's happening regularly. I notice from the schedule that there's some kind of speedrunning event down for the Tuesday. No details yet but with a swathe of new maps promised it's not unlikely that we'll be getting in on the action.

We'll keep ya posted.

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

Think you know the answer to the above question, eh? When asked, 97% of speedrunners replied "That's easy, it's Ken!"[1] but they were wrong. A few days ago they would have been correct but they didn't count on Thomas Stubgaard's relentless drive to own every Id Nightmare 100% record. When Ken took the Gloom Keep record some weeks ago his biggest change to the route was the use of the quad, especially in the "bars" area. Stubby went one better and avoided dropping down at all to save a further four seconds to 1:19. MUST DOWNLOAD

So there wasn't in fact a correct answer to the question. Sorry for asking, it just seemed like an easy way of getting the update started. On with the rest of the demos...

First a little update on the rings2 Nightmare Run. Now, nobody has actually improved my 0:05 by the full second yet, but Ivan Vladev has managed 0:05.2 and Thomas Bergendorff has managed 0:05.06 so it loots as if a 0:04 may indeed be possible. These demos are included in the all demos download, probably.

We haven't seen much from Dan Stukanev for a while, but now he's returned to the ever loving arms of Lady SDA. Time spent away from the archive is like time spent away from your woman. She'll always wonder where you are and who you've been there with, but as long as you come back with a nice present, like a forty-three second improvement to Basil's Nightmare Run of ebony1 giving 0:53, she'll welcome you back with open arms/legs.

SDA : Kind of like a beautiful, forgiving bitch.

Next we have the first of quite a few demos from Anders Nordensten. Never one to ignore an Easy hole, he filled the vacant horror Easy Run with a nice 0:25.

Two more cool demos on dwell.

• Connor Fitzgerald has made one final (he says...) improvement to his Nightmarre 100%, this time smoothing out a few more rough edges to save another three seconds to 1:31.
• But not everything on this level is going Connor's way, because Denis Nazarov has stolen the Easy Run off him by one second with, among other small tweaks, a better fiend boost into the end room. 0:33.

It's official, Ogre-grenade jumps are fun. Just check out rit2...

• Denn did indeed fight back to try and recapture his Easy Run record and managed to get a 0:35, but Anders decided not to wait and sent in his own 0:35 a day earlier. :-)
• And to prove that it was no fluke, Anders also improved Basil's Nightmare Run by eight seconds to 0:35.
• Just so the 100%s wouldn't feel left out I tidied up Basil's Easy 100% and got 2:18, sixteen seconds faster.

Truly it has been said that Uddevalla is the prostate gland of Europe. This is best illustrated by a close inspection of one of its citizens, Carl Tholin. He destroyed my Nightmare 100% of rdend by thirty seconds to 328 to take TO of the map, and then started going on and on about how easy it was. Bastard. ;-)

For our final demo of this update it's back to Connor Fitzgerald and an excellent Easy Run of fmb8. He improved Basil's time by seven seconds with another new OG jump and also found a quicker way of placing the grenade to get you out of the gold key area. 0:53. RECOMMENDED

Well, it's finally stopped raining so I'm off outside. Sorry if there's any mistakes in this update, I started brewing some more homemade wine yesterday and there's 24 gallons of "Elderflower Braindeath" bubbling away just behind me. Therefore the carbon dioxide content of the air in this room is very high and I admit that I'm starting to feel very faint indeed. So if any of the above links are b0rked, it'z tha fuumez.

Probe!

All demos download is available here (Denmark).

[1] The other 3% told me to fuck off and go bother someone else with my stupid questions. :-/